Tinlicker – Dreams Of The Machine [Remember The Future]
Electronic/live band Tinlicker’s fourth album (first as a liveNL/UK trio) ‘Dreams Of The Machine’, an audacious and timely look at technology, is out now on Remember The Future/[PIAS]. The LP includes four previous LP singles and ten new cuts including focus track ‘Choosing Life’. With a new UK/EU tour starting March 3rd & NA tour announce imminent, it’s going to be a packed year for Tinlicker.
‘Dreams of the Machine’ LP: Tinlicker’s commitment to live performance, organic use of live instruments, soulful vocals & lyrics, emotional indie guitar & orchestral elements, alongside superbly skilled production, makes them ideally placed to creatively confront the presence of technology in our daily lives. ‘This [album] era looks at technology and where it’s taking humans. It’s a metaphor for computers or AI having human dreams and emotions – the machine wanting to be human, while people behave more like robots. There’s a shift happening. I hope the music helps people wake up to our humanity: that computers can’t do what we do.’ Tinlicker
Focus track ‘Choosing Life’: Hero’s haunting, heartfelt voice rejects ‘living in fear’, calling for a personal response to the challenge of an artificial digital world. A disturbing low-frequency bass vibrates beneath lively breakbeat percussion, while a melodic, stabby synth theme duets with the vocal.
Album tracks: previous singles ‘Release’ – high energy dance fuel; ‘Reborn’ – late 90s/early 00s Eurodance vibe; ‘I Want My Freedom’ – manifesto of independence; and ‘God In You’ – portentous dub techno/90s synth, are joined by ten melodic new tracks including the acid-drenched, siren build/monster drop ‘Spirit Of Time’, the clear, singing indie guitar sound in ‘4AM’ and ‘Melancholia’, piano (‘Awake Consciousness’, ‘Dancing In The Dark’…), folky, Dido-reminiscent (‘Calling’)… Songs with lyrics & voice centre stage, others instrumental or with choral FX… (see full track list below). To sum up, typically Tinlicker in their very variety, danceable yet listenable, emotional yet sharply produced.
‘How would a Machine interpret nature in a dream? What are the boundaries between the physical and the digital world? Can we create a place in which both exist in harmony, organic and digital, where humans and machines dream together?’ Tinlicker
